Research. Research. Research.

Here are some of the photos I took at the Delanco and Riverside train stations for my research for the last That's Silly! I posted here on the blog. Like most illustrators I try to find research online but in this case I just couldn't find what I was looking for so I took a little drive and took some photos. Although I didn't this time around, I also find it very helpful to make some quick sketches while on location. Even with digital photography there are just some details you're going to miss without studying through sketching.

Research is so important. I can't emphasize this enough to my students. It can make any illustration 100% more believable then if you're just making it up.

Look back at the illustration on the last post and you can see where the ideas came from.

The tile pattern.

The bench's iron work.

The map.

That's Silly, Train Station!

Delanco, New Jersey's Riveline train station stars in February's Highlights High Five's That's Silly! (now available on your local magazine rack)

Delanco is a small all American town that sits on a peninsula surrounded by the Delaware River and the Rancocas Creek. I lived on the second floor of a remodeled old general store dating back to 1852 for 8 years. It was the first I was truly on my own. The train station was just three blocks away which would take me into Camden, NJ for my connection to the Patco line into Philadelphia. I love Delanco and I miss it quite a bit. It really is a great place to live. A lot of the suburban illustrations I make get their inspiration from my short time in Delanco.

I knew this scene was going to be published in February so I wanted to give it the feel of a cold snowy morning with the sun just rising. The funny part is that when I started working on this piece it was in the middle of August at 101 degrees.

Also, I am illustrator for the Make it! Cook it! spread each month in High Five (along with the talented Liz Dubois who illustrates the Cook It! Ingredients). I'll post some shots of the recent spreads soon.

For those who don't know, Highlights High Five is a magazine aimed at children 5 and under. Get a subscription today!

Merry Christmas

I didn't have the time to make a full color Christmas card this year so I stuck with something simple and easy to reproduce on my home printer. The drawing is of my daughter Virginia.

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators Interview

Good news! I was recently interviewed by Anni Matsick for the December issue of the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators newsletter. The interview focuses on the release of the Which Art Student Are You? book. This is just a screen pic below but you can read the full article here. The article is on pages 6 and 7.

Thanks to Anni and the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators for allowing a Philadelphian to join in the fun. I really do appreciate it.

Welcome to Paper Bag Town.

In the December issue of Highlights High Five I had the fun privilege of creating the aptly named Paper Bag Town. The feature was in the interior back cover. The idea is that children can create a small village by cutting out each part and attaching them to stuffed paper bags. I can't help but imagine all of the little boys that, after putting it all together, destroyed it like Godzilla. Virginia and I didn't get a chance to yet but we will. Winkity wink.

This was a lot of fun to work on especially since I got to play with my design skills for the store signs. Thanks, High Five!

Highlights High Five makes a swell gift for the little ones in your life. It does, it does, it does!

The Backyard Murder.

This morning I woke out to find that there had been a murder in my very own backyard. It's terrible. You can see the photos and read the story here. Make sure to read the captions.

What's Wrong, Ice Sculpture?

This is my submission for IF: Winter.

This What's Wrong? piece was really fun to work on. It appears on the back of the December issue of Highlights for Children. Below is the finished line art. Roughly 16 inches wide. More details and secrets below...

Below is the sketch. Going into this I thought it as going to be really difficult but it all came together pretty easy. It wound up taking only 7-8 hours to sketch. You can see the major differences between the final art and the sketch here. Changes of note: Most of the sculptures are close to finish. The Texas shaped base of Ranger Kent. The guy with the chainsaw. The sea turtle the woman is standing on. The kid "stabbing" the fisherman in the back (not intentional). Also, Ranger Kent looks like he is sitting inside the horse, a major oversight on my part.

Below are the little "secrets" that I added. Again, I think it would go over most people's heads but it's fun for me to add them in.

Kayakity yak yak yak.

Things of note in this one: I not only added Usagi Yojimbo to this piece, he's the white rabbit with the top knot in the inflatable raft, but I also added Jim Lawson's frog, Orson, from his comic Bade Biker and Orson. The comic books Usagi Yojimbo and Bade Biker & Orson were two of the biggest art influences on me when I was in grade school.

In the final printed version of this piece (see below) Usagi was changed to just a plain white rabbit. Cindy and David caught me on that one!

November's Highlights Magazine features not only my work on the back cover (see above), the interior (November's hidden picture referred to earlier in blog here) but for the first time my work was on the front cover (see below)!

Okay, okay, not REALLY. Look closer. MUCH closer. I just had a snippet from my hidden picture on the front cover. Re-cork the champagne...

The weirdest of the weird.

I have seen some weird stuff in my days of living in Philadelphia but this one takes the cake. If three of my students did not see it with me I really would have thought my mind was making it up. Take a quick look at this sketch and then read the story below.

It was raining and we were walking back from Subway after lunch. To the left of us I see, what I thought at the time, was either a dressed up statue or a man doing spontaneous performance art (a sight usually only seen on our First Fridays). He was perfectly still in this odd position leaning to the right with his left leg extended as far as it could go in the opposite direction. I leaned in to get a better look and that's when I realized that he was peeing. Not with his pants unzipped as you would think but he was peeing down his left pant leg and allowing it to flow out by his shoe! I guess the angle was supposed to help keep his leg from getting wet? Before you judge him, remember he was nice enough to allow the urine to come out onto the roots of a tree because if there is one thing we have learned in school it is that trees LOVE urine. Now I have to say, I may have half-expected this from a homeless man but this guy was in his mid thirties, dressed fairly well and was carrying flowers in his backpack for his sweetheart. I can see it now, "Oh! Thank you, honey! (pause) Why do the flowers smell like urine?"

Courier Post

Back in August I was featured in an article in our local newspaper, the Courier Post. I hesitated to post a link to the article here because the accompanying photo contained a sketch of the That Silly Highlights' Building which I did not want my fellow Highlights illustrators to see since it was to be a big surprise for this year's Highlights Illustrators' Party. I foolishly left it out on the drawing board and didn't realize the writer had taken a photo of it.

Here is the article, if you haven't read it. Thank you to writer Kevin Callahan and the folks at the Courier Post.